[john-tells-all]

This!

Cookbooks have editors, and the recipes are tested so they can be made with common ingredients. They want cooks to be successful!

Oddly I've found cookbook recipes to ALWAYS be better than online recipes. Book recipes tend to be shorter, clearer, and more successful. Online recipes are okay but sometimes don't come out the way I'd expect, they're more fiddly.

It's great to have options!

[hinkley]

There is something to be said for cooking shows as well. Certain activities take time, and they end up editorializing things that they wouldn't think of with just the written word. What order to mix things. Common substitutions. How to avoid pitfalls (use this tool for this step, not this other one) and fix problems.

Example: too much salt in your soup? Add a little potato starch.

[Mikeb85]

The barrier to publishing online is lower, so recipes are always hit or miss. Really depends on the author.

[tonymet]

Online content is optimized for (a) SEO and (b) immediate visual appeal. Most ranking signals are not coming from actual cooks testing the recipe.

Your'e right, I've found some good content online. e.g. Chef John / Food Wishes has great recipes and videos. He also conveys some good tips & technique.

[hinkley]

The ecosystem of publishing also has people who have to exhibit their value to the process or get eliminated. Online publishing removes both technical and social friction for putting half-baked ideas out there. We haven't invented a good way to have one but not the other yet.